


The Faceless Ones: Genesis

by BowtiesandCryingeyes



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 10th Doctor - Freeform, AU where the Doctor doesn’t go into the radiation chamber, Doctor Who One Shot, F/M, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Reader-Insert, Regeneration, Simm!Master, ancient psychic parasites, doctor who - Freeform, human!reader, hurt!reader, light cursing btw ;), mental illness mentions, nose bleeds, time lady - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29530260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BowtiesandCryingeyes/pseuds/BowtiesandCryingeyes
Summary: After leaving Wilfred to die in 'The End of Time,' the Doctor's life takes a dark turn. Unable to bring himself to return to England, he runs away to America to try to forget the horrible thing he has done. To try to convince himself he's still a good man. He unexpectedly finds hope in a small-town Virginia girl. A new companion, a new friend. But there is a dark mystery swimming in her eyes, an ancient evil waiting to be let out. This seemingly normal girl, will change the Doctor's life forever.
Relationships: The Master (Doctor Who)/Reader, The Master (Simm)/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	The Faceless Ones: Genesis

You travelled with the Doctor for a while now, used to his antics. They helped to distract you from the others. The Faceless Ones that lived in the back of your head that had been there since the Night of the Comet at your hometown of Virginia. A little chunk of the celestial object had broken and crashed into the forest behind your house. You wished you’d never ventured into the woods that night. Wished you had let someone else stumble upon it to be infected. They used to speak to you a lot before. Telling you dark secrets and ancient stories. Telling you to do horrible things. Such bad, bad, awful things. Never stopping, growing louder and louder. And then you’d been pulled into the Doctor’s orbit. The Faceless shushed themselves, watching the ancient eyes through yours when you’d first met him. And then silence. You’d looked at the ancient man stunned, touching his cheek as he’d looked at you confused. Even more so when you had entered the Tardis for the first time, your only reaction being to hug the console and call the machine beautiful. You eventually told him about the entities in your mind, disturbing the usual cheery demeanor he held. His face had gone dark as a storm cloud, eyes suddenly cold and piercing and filled with suspicion. He strided up to you in his pin-striped suit, fingers flying to your temples. It felt like a piano had fallen on you and you let out a blood-curdling scream, dropping to your knees. He blinked for a minute, before he jumped back apologizing profusely. He hadn’t been gentle enough in his anger; thinking you were a spy, a trick, a lie. The glimpse of your mind apparently convinced him otherwise. 

He said he just wanted to hear them. To talk to them, reason with them to leave. Give them a choice. Stay and die, or let the Doctor help them, and take them somewhere where they could live peacefully. He stooped down and placed his hands on the sides of your head once more. More holding it up than resting his hands there. He searched and searched, but couldn’t find a single one of ‘the Faceless’ that you had spoken of. You’d begged him to keep going, even as you started to feel more drained with each go. You could feel them fleeing from his presence in your mind, hiding in dark nooks and crannies from his amber light. He’d looked at you with pity in his eyes, and you’d felt sick. He’d talked to you about schizophrenia, and other mental disorders that could be a possibility, his voice low and soft, treating you like broken glass. And after so many long and wonderful adventures with him, you heard them again. Laughing. Laughing as you tuned out the Doctor’s words and slumped against the pilot seat’s edge. He’s going to bring me back… back to my home and far away from anymore ‘stressful stimuli’. I’m never gonna see him again, am I? He would go and the Faceless would come back. And they would never shut up. He’d stopped talking at some point, just staring at you, hearing your thoughts from the faint connection of holding your hand. He’s squeezed it, drawing your attention. And you’d looked at him, with a broken expression in your e/c eyes. His hearts clenched at the pain that he could feel coursing through your mind, despite the faint, forced smile you held up as a mask. A mask he had used so many times before. And he’d done what the Doctor had always done, offered help. You would stay, and he would try to fix you.

You now stand in the calm of the Tardis as you wait for the Doctor to come back. He had said you couldn’t come with him, and you hadn’t dared follow after seeing the rush of emotions across his face. But you had caught a glimpse out the door, a black hole with a ship on its tipping point. You had been confused, it didn’t look that dangerous from other adventures. What, or who was on that ship that made him react that way? Was it really that bad that you couldn’t come with to help? It must be from his reaction, you had decided. The thought changes when he walks in with a grinning blonde man. “You found me! ha! That was tricky wasn’t it? Oh, but the GREAT Doctor can do anything can’t he?” You cock your head in confusion at the cuffs around the man’s wrists and the guarded look on the Doctor's face. Mr. blonde-with-a-goatee looks up and into your eyes and a zapping jolt goes through you.  
“Who…?” You stare back at the Doctor for comfort as he brings the man to the console.  
He sighs. The Faceless Ones stir pulling at the back of your mind, whispering.  
“This is the Master. He’ll be staying on board with us until I figure out what to do with him. He’s too much of a threat to be on his own,” he states, mumbling the last part almost inaudibly. “Please don’t go near him without me present.” The Master looks at you bored.  
“This ape’s new. What happened to the other one? The grandpa? Oh right you let it die, my bad.” The Doctor’s jaw clenches. What was this ‘Master’ talking about? The Doctor you know wouldn’t let someone die. He gives a demented grin that twists your stomach, but the Faceless stir, their awakening long overdue. They force you forward, moving your body like a puppet. The horribly violating sensation makes you whimper as you take a step toward the Master. He looks at you strangely.  
“Doctor, I think your pet is broken. It's coming towards me.” The Doctor looks up from the console.  
The Faceless reach your hand up toward the Master as he backs away growling.  
“Don’t you dare touch me, human!” You choke on your words, trying to say you aren’t doing this, to say something, anything, but can’t. They won’t let you.  
“Y/n don’t,” the Doctor says firmly, looking back at the console. Then your skin meets his. He grabs your wrist with his cuffed hand, almost crushing bone.  
“I said don’t touch me, you filthy ape!”  
The Faceless cheer, raising up in your mind, with the deafening roar of an ocean. That’s what they want, an opening to be freed from this human vessel; finding a powerful mind to infect and inhabit. The Doctor's mind had been too strong, but this one, this one was unstable, teetering on insanity. Perfect. They run up through your veins as you shriek and fall to your knees. They course up to the connection of skin and push through the bridge, cheering and singing their victory. Until you heard a deafening sound in your mind. A beat slamming on the insides of your skull in a series of four. Blood gushes from your eyes and nose from the pressure of the Timelord's mind on yours as you scream. The Master looks at you disgustedly, trying to yank his hand away from you, but finds his skin stuck and melded with yours. You howled again. The Doctor runs towards you.  
“Make it stop! The drumming! Stop! Please,” you scream. The Master's eyes snap to yours. The Doctor grabs onto your connected hands trying to pull you apart. The pressure on your mind seems to increase ten fold as his hand makes contact. He tries yanking it back, but finds it fused like the Master’s. “Y/n, let go! Please!” the Doctor cries desperately.  
“I can’t!” you cry.  
The Faceless scream, as the pulse of drums reaches them, burning them away to nothing. You pass out, as all three hands were released, the bridge gone. The Doctor slides to your side shaking you and yelling your name, only causing your head to lull to the side.  
“What did you do to them?!”  
“Me?! I didn’t do anything!”  
“Stop lying to me! Tell me what you did!”  
“Much as I'd like to take credit, that was not me, Doctor.” He pauses, looking at the human on the floor. “She did that.” The Master crouches by her, looking at her curiously. “Where did you find this pet, Doctor?” He brushes a strand of hair away from your face before the Doctor slaps his hand away.  
“Get out of here!” The Master glowers at him.  
“Why would I do that when I can watch you panic as your little human dies, hm?”  
He laughs maniacally as the Doctor hastily scoops you up and runs out of the console room to the Med bay. 

You look around yourself in the void of gray mist. Where is this? The drums slam back in fall force. This was worse than the Faceless you think, slapping your hands over your ears. I can feel everything! I can’t get away! Flashes of places and people you’ve never seen fill your mind. Secrets, and stories filling every space in your crammed head. “Doctor! Doctor, where are you? Help me! Please, you have to help me!” Your shouts echo into the emptiness unheard. 

You open your eyes to see the Master's cold ones staring down at you. You jolt when you heard the drums that were still there. You groan. “No no, no, no…”  
“Glad you're so happy to see me gorgeous,” he says with a smirk.  
“No not you, you idiot!” The Master growls.  
“How dare-” You shoot up into a sitting position, making the Master back up.  
“It's still there! Why is it still there?!” You turn your maddening eyes on the shocked Master, grabbing his collar and pulling him to you. “What did you give me, Master,'' you say. He shoves you off and knocks you off the bed.  
“You’re really touchy, you humans!” You laugh and lie there, tap the floor in rhythm to the beating in your head.  
“You're hilarious,” you sass to him. The Master watches you, as his eyes drift to your hand still tapping away. His eyes widen before he steps over you, grabbing the front of your shirt and violently shaking you.  
“Why are you doing that?!” He shouts, indicating your hand.  
“Drums, Master! Drum, drum, drum, DRUM,” you sing-song, your voice going dark at the end, eyes clouding with hate as your nose starts to bleed again. The Doctor walks into this mess.  
“What are you doing?!” The Master stands up, dropping you back to the floor. Looking between you and the Master with a shocked expression.  
“She hears them Doctor.. She hears them!”  
“Hears what?”  
“Drums, Doctor,” you suddenly speak up. They both look at you as you stare up at the ceiling.  
“That’s… that’s impossible,” the Doctor says.  
“So were the Faceless!” you shot back, “and the chances of getting rid of them,” you mumble.  
“The wot?” the Master says.  
“It's what she calls the voices in her head.”  
“Did I ever tell you Doctor? That they told me stories? About the man with the white stone and the man with a gun, Gallifrey at their back? A mad old man with a gun in his hands? Now that's something to be afraid of.” The master and Doctor look at each other with an awkward silence. “Oh, but the box. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Big, beautiful, blue box. She stole the Timelord you know. Everyone thinks it’s the other way around, but it's not. Isn’t that right, Sexy?” you say patting the floor. The Tardis seems to let out an amused hum. “We’re off to see the universe~, the wonders at odds! Wait no, sorry, that's the Wizard of Oz. Well it's not really, but it is. God I’m hungry! Is anyone else hungry,” you say, talking a mile a minute. The Timelords look at each other baffled.  
“Why is she talking like you?” the Master says.  
“How does she know all that, I never told her,” The Doctor says, ignoring the Master's question. “She shouldn’t! How would she know about the gate? About the white diamond grounding the psychic link to Gallifrey?”  
“FACELESS!” you shout at him, rage twisting your face. “Oh, poor little Doctor, he just can’t figure it out.” Your voice has taken on a cutting sarcasm that the Doctor has never seen from you, and a shiver goes down his spine.  
“Well now she’s just sounding like you,” The Doctor says ruffling his hair.  
“Are you not going to mention how she’s acting high as a kite right now? Last time I saw something like that I was regenerating,” the Master adds.  
“Does no one listen to me? I told you, they tell me stories! Well told me stories They were boredddddd. And now they are gone…” you stop, furrowing your eyebrows.  
“I guess I should thank you. Thank you, Master,” you say with a small smile on your lips. The Master stares at you blankly. You were almost cu- not annoying with that smile on your face.  
“I didn’t do anything,” he says flatly.  
“Oh, but you did! They were so stupid! And they thought you were gonna be their golden ticket! That's what they wanted, Doctor. TO OWN THE UNIVERSE,” you say with a flourish, spreading out like a starfish on the ground. “They crashed and landed in a little girl's backyard, so, so, long ago. They were dying. They were only still alive from being frozen in that comet ya know. They needed a host and that's when I came toddling along. A child, weak defenses, easily taken over. Oh they probably hated that, forced to live in a pesky human all those years. Then they found you Master! But… they burned. The drums, your mind was too much-”  
“If this is all true, -and it’s starting to look an awful lot like that’s the case- then why didn’t they come after me when we met,” the Doctor interjects.  
“They couldn’t. Too strong of a mental defense I think. Master’s was weak.”  
“I am NOT weak.” You just look at him.  
“No, you are definitely not, you just killed off millions of entities that have survived for trillions of years, but your mental blocks are a mess, Master.” The Master lunges at her, but the Doctor stops him. Just barely. Her eyes flash with anger and glows gold for a moment, making the Master pause.  
“What. the hell. Was that?!”  
“Bridge,” is all you say as you hop up.  
The Doctor looks at her. “What do you mean bri- Ohhhh. Oh dear.”  
“Yup,” you say, popping the p.  
“What is going on?!” The Master growls, growing quite impatient. The Doctor opens his mouth to reply, but you beat him to it.  
“The Faceless opened a bridge between us sweetie, every single cell in my body, open,” you state, with a fluttering motion of your fingers. “And bridges go both ways, ” you explain, walking over to the cabinets and rifling through them. “I got some stuff, you guys got some stuff. Although it’s human-y so you probably don’t notice. I, on the other hand, do. A lot!” you groan out as you double over in pain. The Doctor rushes over to you but you wave him off with an ‘I’m fine’ and keep searching the cupboards. “Where is the damn tea,” you grumble. “Kinda like the metacrisis! My mind is filling up with too much info. Going to overload, soon, very soon!”  
The Doctor looks at you, heart broken. He was going to have to lose another companion? This way? You catch his eyes and surprise him with a smile. “I know what you’re thinking Martian man, and it’s not gonna happen! Keep your E.T. fingers to yourself!” The Doctor looks at you, taken aback. “Now, all of you, just shut up, we're wasting time- wasting time- time- time- time- ti-” you repeat mechanically. You slam your hands on a counter. “Fuck!” You whirl around, placing your tightly on both of their shoulders. “Brain: one big huge hard drive. Overloading; needs more space. I know how to fix it this time, Doc. Bridge is still open. There is still time, but it’s running out, and once that bridge is closed everything is going to be trapped in. I need the both of you to fix this,” you finish, gripping their shoulders like a vice,.  
“Anything, I’ll do anything that will help save you, y/n” the Doctor says desperately.  
“Why should I help you,” the Master says in disgust, shaking off your hand. You smile like a shark. You step up to him, getting in his face, noses almost touching.  
“Cause if you don’t, Master,” you say snidely, “I will break you,” the last bit of a low whisper in his ear. You pull back and danger sparks in your eyes, fronted by a cold, dark determination. A promise, that you would break him, in every way imaginable. Your smile was now gone. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up with- fear? excitement? admiration? Maybe All three.  
“I’d like to see you try,” he said with fake confidence, “but since I’m feeling bored, and only because I am bored, I will help.”  
“Great,” you say, and place one of each of their hands on your temples before slapping yours to their foreheads. “I’m just going to transfer some of the stuff I don’t need -that’s suffocating me- on to you guys!” you say cheerily.  
“Great so we’re just trash bins then,” the Master says dryly.  
“Yup.”  
And then the Doctor and Master are flooded with memories of Gallifrey. Other’s memories and lives; their history. Everything that wasn’t essential. The mind of a timelord would stay, along with the Master’s and Doctor’s memories. But the rest was just useless noise. Cache, taking up all her mind’s breathing room. When it’s done, a faint golden mist clings around the three as they drop their hands. The Timelords shake their heads from the sudden mental rush, and there is silence.  
“I will never miss those boring lectures,” the Master mutters. The Doctor let out a bark of laughter.  
“Yeah,” He said, smiling. 

You cleared your throat, and the Timelords look up at you, reasserting your existence. The Doc smiles and rushes over to give you a big bear hug, so happy to have saved a companion this time around. You smile sadly.  
“Doctor…” he stops and looks at you, his grin falling. “It wasn’t enough… the lives you’ve both lived... they’re so vast, it’s not enough...” you trail off a grim expression on your face. The Doctor starts pacing and pulling at his hair, not taking anything in. The Master on the other hand, looks at her and shock clouds his features.  
“Doctor-” the Master starts.  
“No, no, no!” he shouts. “I’m not losing another companion this way!”  
“No, you’re not,” you say gently. “But I’m going to have to change.”  
The Doctor turns to you, hearing the words of his ninth self from your lips. “What do you mean, what are you talking about,” he says as his hearts drop.  
“Look at her hands, Doctor,” the Master said quietly. You raise your hands up from behind your back. They are emanating a golden light, running under your skin and through your veins. He stares in shock.  
“How…?”  
“I said ‘Kind of’ like the meta-crisis, Doctor. It’s a bit more than that.” They stare as your whole body starts to glow faintly. “I got the whole package. I thought I could stop it, if my mind didn’t burn up, I wouldn’t have to go. I don’t want to go...” There is a shock in your face as if you're only just realizing. The Doctor gazes at you with pity in his eyes.  
“I am so, so, sorry y/n,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. You let out a choked laugh.  
“It’s alright. The end is where all beginnings have to start after all,” you said with a mournful smile. The Doctor walks up to you, placing a kiss on your forehead before stepping back.  
“I’m not going to be y/n anymore Doctor, so I’ll need a different name….” The Doctor nods. “...Genesis,” you state with a note finality, “my name will be Genesis.”  
You let out a shout as it starts, a sudden burst of energy that throws back your head and shoulders. The Timelords duck as the room is destroyed around them. Your body burns with the light of a sun as regeneration energy engulfs you, molding you, changing you, into something new.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE LIKE AND COMMENT. I WANT TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS WORK. (IT'S MY FIRST)


End file.
